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3une 22. 1919 



BATES COLLEGE BULLETIN 



JUNE, 1920 



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SEVENTEENTH SERIES 



NUMBER 3 



Entered at the Post Office at Lewiston, Maine, as second-class mail matter, under the 
provisions of the Act of July 16, 1894. 




(^eorge (Jolbii (flias^ 

JMarct} 15. 1844-ilHau 2r. 1913 



Program 



Organ Marche Religieuse 

Organ Suite 

a. Toccata 

b. Intermezzo 

Andante Cantabile (from String Quartet) 



Guilmant 
Rogers 

Haydn 



Processional Marche Solennele Lemaigre 

Anthem Abide With Me Barnhy 

Invocation Reverend Ashniun Thompson Salley, D.D., '75 



Response How Sweet To Pray 



Phippen 



Address Incidents of Earlier Days 

Professor Lyman Granville Jordan, Ph.D., '70 

Poem Semper Fidelis Mabel S. Merrill, '91 

Read by Professor Grosvenor May Robinson, A.M. 

Address Our President 

Professor William Henry Hartshorn, Litt.D., '86 



Solo My Redeemer 



Buck 
Erie B. Renwick, '18 



Address The Immortality of a Great Life 

Reverend Thomas Hobbs Stacy, D.D., '76 

Recessional 



Organ Finale from Second Organ Symphony Widor 

Miss Cecelia Christensen, Organist 



BATES COLLEGE BULLETIN 5 

INCIDENTS OF EARLIER DAYS 

Fifty-five years ago next August there entered the Freshman 
class of Bates College a young man who was destined to exert a 
powerful influence upon his own college and upon college life and 
education in general. One cannot easily conceive how different the 
conditions were here at that time from what they are now. The 
beautiful trees which now cover our campus with their delightful 
shade were then very small, or entirely lacking in places, none of 
them having been set more than six or eight years. The college 
grounds occupied less than half their present area, being included 
entirely between College Street and a line parallel to it running from 
Campus Avenue just back of the library building and through the 
middle of the chemical laboratory. 

Only two buildings had been erected, Hathorn and Parker Halls, 
and Hathorn Hall was only partially finished. The Institution was 
called Bates College, but included the Maine State Seminary and what 
later became Nichols Latin, or preparatory. School. Only two college 
classes had been admitted. 

It was my good fortune, as a member of the preparatory depart- 
ment, to become acquainted with George Colby Chase in that, his 
Freshman year, and it has been my much greater good fortune to have 
that acquaintance and friendship and intimacy continued and 
strengthened through the long period of years to the day of his death. 

George Chase, as we used to call him, to distinguish him from 
others of the same family name, very soon set the standard among 
his fellow-students for scholarship, character, and high ideals. At 
the same time his relations with his classmates and other students 
were characterized by marked courtesy, frankness, and kindly con- 
sideration. In his religious exercises there was manifest a specially 
reverent and worshipful spirit that was impressive and noticeable 
even to a casual observer. 

In the debating societies which were then an important feature 
in the student life he occupied a very prominent position. In any 
discussion or argument the side which secured his help was very sure 
to win. He took part in the first one of our public college debates, 
which many here present will remember were established and main- 
tained by the earnest efforts of our beloved Professor Stanton. To 
those of us younger students listening to that debate several of the 
speakers seemed to have a vast array of facts, a broad view of the 
subject, and great skill in arranging and presenting their points. But 
when the chairman of the committee announced the name of Chase as 
the winner of the prize there was hearty appi'oval, and no one could 
question the justness of the decision. 



6 BATES COLLEGE BULLETIN 

In his senior yeai" he sametimes substituted for an ill or absent 
Professor, and in those cases the class was sure to have excellent 
instruction; indeed some of the delinquent students found it very hard 
to dodge his critical and searching questions. When he graduated 
he left behind him a reputation for accurate scholarship, strong and 
original thinking, and high Christian character that has not been 
exceeded in the history of the college. 

After four years of teaching and graduate study, one year 
of which was at Harvard, he became a member of the Faculty of 
Bates College, as Professor of Rhetoric and English Literature. This 
department had previously had a rather shadowy existence, and its 
work consisted chiefly of a brief study of rhetoric and the writing of a 
few learned essays on various abstruse subjects. But he put his whole 
soul and energy into his work, and very soon succeeded in raising the 
department to a strong and thorough course, and maintained it at that 
high standard for twenty-two years. 

As a member of the Faculty he at once became a strong and vital 
force. In the enforced absences of President Cheney in raising the 
endowment of the young college there was need of wise leadership 
and efficient management in the local affairs of the Faculty. Grad- 
ually and almost unconsciously Professor Chase came into this posi- 
tion of leadership, and for many years was practically the Dean of 
the college Faculty. 

He also took much interest in public and civic affairs. For 
sixteen years he was a member of the Lewiston School Board and two 
years its President. In all this time he exerted an important influence 
in shaping the policy of our public schools, and in raising the standard 
of instruction and school management. In one case he stood almost 
alone in opposition to a very objectionable measure which had been 
introduced in the School Board with strong support, and which failed 
of passage only on account of his strenuous efforts and unanswer- 
able arguments against it. 

He ably i-epresented the college in many religious and educational 
conventions, and in one case appeared before a committee of the Maine 
Legislature in behalf of an educational measure which had been 
already adversely decided. Having obtained a rehearing he advocated 
the measure with so forceful and convincing arguments that the com- 
mittee reversed their decision and rendered an unanimously favorable 
report, and the bill was soon passed by the legislature. 

In addition to all his other duties he gave very substantial aid to 
President Cheney by raising money for the college endowment, secur- 
ing while still a professor something over one hundred thousand 
dollars by his own personal eft'orts. 



BATES COLLEGE BULLETIN 7 

In all these relations and duties which we have thus briefly 
considered he showed the elements of those great qualities which 
characterized his later life. He had unbounded faith in the triumph 
of right principles and right policies. He believed that if anything 
ought to be done it could be done; and allowed no obstacles or 
difficulties to dishearten him in the accomplishment of his great 
purposes. 

Even in his earlier days character building was one of the 
foundation principles of his educational policy, and he viewed with 
the greatest satisfaction all evidences of growth and development in 
that direction on the part of his students. In a remarkable degree 
he seemed to have a consciousness of the divine favor and help in his 
work, and it made him strong and brave and patient and hopeful. 
No element of his nature, however, was more noticeable than his 
power of forming strong personal attachments. He was greatly 
beloved, and by many different classes of people; but he won the love 
of others because he first loved them. I shall never forget the long 
conference I had with him Sunday afternoon, the last Sunday of his 
life, and the many kindly and tender sentiments he expressed about 
his associates, the students, alumni, citizens of Lewiston and Auburn, 
and friends in general. 

He was great in his faith, great in his hope, great in his love; 
but he was greatest in his love. 




BATES COLLEGE BULLETIN 

SEMPER FIDELIS 



June once again upon the staunch old hill, 
Upon the campus and the tree-bowered roofs, 
And on the walks that knew his faithful feet 
Year after year, though others failed and passed. 
June, with the silken whisper of the leaves. 
With sweet scents breathing over scenes he loved. 

So does he keep his tryst with her today, 

His college, work of his own heart and brain. 

The dream that came alive beneath his hand. 

He comes today in living thoughts that dwell 

Deep in the hearts of those who gather here. 

He comes with gifts — with golden memories 

Whereof we weave a garland that shall fade 

Only when Bates has lost the vision clear 

That gave her being. With fresh strength he comes, 

New inspiration and a quickening hope. 

There is a flower that blooms in human souls. 
Grown from some seed divine, nurtured by love. 
And waxing mightier as the years go by. 
Till its sweet breath has touched a thousand lives. 
Blessing and healing with a magic power. 
Call it what name you like — the love of men — 
The swift warm impulse when the helping hand 
Goes out to lift and guide a soul in need — 
Call it the Will to Serve, the pure desire 
That grows to passion as its flame is fed. 
That burns away the dross of selfishness. 
And leaves the man alone among his kind, 
'One in a thousand," different from the rest. 
Too oft the seed from which this flower should come 
Chances to fall in harsh, unfriendlj' ground 
And perishes unheeded in the sand. 
The world knows not in what low, quiet place 
The heavenly plant shall find the soil it loves 
And spring to wondrous life and perfect flower, 
Till he in whose unselfish soul it blooms 
Becomes a rare man in the world of men. 
Something goes out from him whose power is felt, 
Not often understood, sometimes maligned, 
Scoff'ed at by careless ones whose eyes are held 
That they see not the source of this strange power. 
The man who lives to serve — ah, he must walk 
Often alone with only faith's high star 
To guide him thi'ough the shadowland of doubt. 
Yet by the power that dwells in him he grows 
Both seer and soldier, mighty man of deeds. 
With strength to hew the path himself has marked 
In hours of vision. 

Even such was he, 



BATES COLLEGE BULLETIN 

That boy who came to Bates in those first years, 

And stood upon Mount David, looking- down 

On the sweet "Mecca of his pilgrimag-e." 

That, too, was springtime and the bahiiy air 

Murmured its old-new tale of hope and life. 

Was there a whisper in the breathing wind 

That he had come who brought the precious seed? 

He who should touch a thousand lives with power 

And help and bless the thousands yet to come? 

Here would be lived the rare and precious life 

Whose value we know well and yet know not. 

Here stood the youth whose eye should mark new ways, 

Whose arm should hew new roads where no roads were, 

And, as the years went by, should guide the steps 

Of youth that but for him, had passed along, 

Missing- its chance, and finding- not the path 

That led to larger life, to wider plains — 

Lifted horizons, showing worlds beyond. 

And so today, as ever, does he keep 
His tryst with her he loved and served so well. 
Happy the college that can speak his name 
With a proud air of ownership and say: 
'These are the works he fashioned, what he wrought 
The eyes can see beneath these sheltering- boughs." 
Speak for him, tree-bowered roofs, old halls and new, 
Green sward and happy faces of the flowers. 
Speak for him, hearts that lift and eyes that burn 
Bright with our pride, tender with love for him. 
Tell us 'tis ours to hold his standard high 
And keep it pure, as he would have us do. 
And send a message to the hearts afar. 
The absent sons and daughters of these halls. 
That still he lives and waits to welcome them. 
When they shall come again to twine with us 
Fresh leaves for this bright wreath we weave today. 



10 BATES COLLEGE BULLETIN 

OUR PRESIDENT 

George Colby Chase was born in Unity, Maine, on the 15th of 
March, 1844. His parents were typical of the old New England 
stock, staunch, honest, laborious. God-fearing. The young boy from 
the first knew the struggle for existence, the endless labors of the 
farm, the isolation and privation then incident to life in a rural com- 
munity far removed from the business and wealth of the world. He 
also knew and had in himself the physical and mental vigor, the 
sturdy independence, the self-reliance, the ambition that often flourish 
best in such an environment. He was not destined to continue in the 
sphere to which he was born. He was a boy with a vision, and as the 
knights of the Round Table, inspired by the light of the Holy Grail, 
left the Hall of King Arthur and went forth on their quest, so he, 
following the light that was in him, left the home acres for the broader 
fields of life. His immediate ambition was the seemingly impossible 
attainment of an education. This involved a goal, in his time, place, 
and circumstances, almost as remote as the Grail itself. But, depend- 
ent on his own exertions, in the face of overwhelming discourage- 
ments, and apparently insurmountable obstacles, by unremitting toil 
and extreme frugality, by sheer force of character and intellectual 
ability, he finally achieved his quest and was graduated from Maine 
State Seminary in 1864 and from Bates College in 1868. 

During this period of education, of preparation for the work 
which lay immediately before him, but as yet unknown, he had done 
much teaching and had found himself pre-eminently fitted for that 
profession. At the same time he was considering seriously the claims 
of the ministry as offering, perhaps, the best opportunities for the 
service that he felt he must render to God and man. 

After graduation he accepted a position as teacher in the New 
Hampton Literary Institution. His success here was such that two 
years later, in 1870, he was called to Bates College to serve as an 
instructor, while pursuing a course in the Theological School which 
was then connected with the college. Here again, his ability and suc- 
cess were so marked that after a year of graduate study he became 
Professor of the English Language and Literature in the college which 
had graduated him four years before. Forty-seven years have passed 
since he assumed the duties of that professorship, years fraught with 
changes in the college which no flight of fancy could then have com- 
passed, and during all these years his life has been an integral part 
of the life of the college, in its promise and fulfillment, in its policies 
and practices, a vital force of support, guidance and inspiration. 

Back of institutions, men; back of men, God. Such, in the final 
analysis, will be found to be the history of every institution that has 



BATES COLLEGE BULLETIN 11 

ministered to the welfare of humanity and served to elevate, enrich 
and ennoble human life. Such, we know in part and believe wholly, 
has been the history of Bates College. Its founder and first Presi- 
dent, Dr. Oren B. Cheney, was a man of God, a man burning with 
zeal for the service of his Master, a man of broad views, a dreamer 
of dreams, a seer of visions. In his visions he saw a college where 
others could see only pastures, bogs and stump fences. He saw boys 
and girls, gathered from the hillsides, the hamlets and towns of New 
England, assembled in an institution that should place an education 
within the grasp of the poorest and humblest, should minister to them 
spiritually as well as intellectually, and should send them forth to 
serve their fellow-men. Having remarkable practical ability united 
with constructive imagination, he lived to see his ambitions realized, to 
see the college founded and safely over the minor ills of infancy. 
Then, at a ripe old age, crowned with the benedictions of those he 
had served, he laid down the burden, and the first chapter of the 
history of Bates College was finished. 

His logical successor was Prof. George Colby Chase. As a pro- 
fessor he had been a dominating influence in the college. He shared 
the ideals and aspirations of Dr. Cheney for the future growth of the 
institution. For many years he had served as Acting-President 
during the many and often long absences of the President. In times 
of severe financial stress he had gone forth to make friends for the 
young college and to solicit funds for its support. So successful had 
he been in this undertaking that he had already secured almost 
$150,000. 

And so, in 1894, he became President of Bates College. 

What did he find? What did he not find? He found a small 
college, 31 years old. He found few buildings, insignificant endow- 
ment, inadequate equipment. The simple life was nowhere better 
exemplified. Behind the college was no large and powerful religious 
denomination to cast upon it the mantle of its prestige, to furnish it 
with students and to pour money into its coffers. Most of those who 
had borne the burdens and sacrifices of founding it had passed to 
their reward. It had no wealthy friends save those whom the new 
President had interested in its behalf. It had no great body of 
alumni, rich and powerful, willing and able to assume the responsi- 
bility of its maintenance. It had no famous graduates, the halo of 
whose glory might shed some lustre on their alma mater. Its grad- 
uates were mostly those whose eyes had not caught the gleam of 
gold, whose ears had not heard the clink of dollars, but had heard 
the call to service,— ministers, missionaries, teachers. 

On the other hand, although he found a small college, other 
colleges were then small: although it had inadequate resources, few 



12 BATES COLLEGE BULLETIN 

colleges were then wealthy. Bates College already had high standing 
for the quality of its work and the results achieved, for the character 
and success of its graduates in whatever callings they engaged. 

It had ideals, principles, ideals and principles which he had helped 
to establish as the basis of future growth. 

It had a faculty, most of whom had borne the burden of years 
in the service of the college, all imbued with its spirit, for its spirit 
was theirs, all united in loyalty to the institution with which they had 
cast their lot for life. It had a student body, drawn mostly from 
New England and having many of the characteristics of their rugged 
home. 

On this foundation he was to build. 

From the first it was recognized, by none better than by himself, 
that the financial situation of the college would tax his greatest 
efforts. The material results of these efforts are evident to all who 
know the college. Of him it may be said: "If you wish to behold his 
monument, look about you." During the twenty-five years of his 
Presidency the college has had a steady and healthy growth in re- 
sources and equipment, in extent and value of scholastic work, in influ- 
ence and public favor, a gi'owth small, indeed, from the viewpoint of 
a great university, but sufficiently remarkable under all the circum- 
stances. As President he lived to see a growth in buildings from 
6 to 17; endowment, from $317,000 to $1,173,000; cost of maintenance, 
from $24,000 to $100,000; library, from 18,000 to 46,000; faculty and 
officers, from 13 to 36; students, from 167 to 485; graduates, from 
587 to 2,285. 

New buildings involved the securing of some $350,000. Exten- 
sion of campus, athletic field, laboratories, furnishings, yearly defi- 
cits, all required relatively large sums. The funds for this increase 
of endowment, this erection and purchase of new buildings, these 
deficits and many other purposes were mostly the results of his 
earnest, wise and ceaseless efforts. 

But these material evidences of prosperity are the last things on 
which he himself would have placed special emphasis. The college 
itself, as a spiritual and intellectual entity, a body of teachers, stu- 
dents and graduates, all working with a common purpose for a 
common goal, this was the chief object of his devotion. 

Under his direction the college must fulfill certain requirements. 
His ideals of a college and a college education had in them nothing 
original, startling, or unique. They have existed, indeed, do exist, 
in many institutions and are held today thoretically by most educa- 
tors. It was his unfaltering belief in those ideals and the tenacity 
with which he held them in the face of a certain relaxation in modern 
life and in the educational world, the fidelity and zeal with which he 



BATES COLLEGE BULLETIN 13 

insisted on their embodiment in college life that distinguished him 
from many other great educators. 

To his mind education consists of the harmonious development of 
the whole personality, physical, intellectual, spiritual. Character is 
the supreme end of education. Religion is the true basis of all noble 
character. Hence a college over which he presided must be a relig- 
ious institution, not formally or technically, but a place where the 
atmosphere, the environment is distinctly religious, where religion is 
a subject of daily thought and presentation, where there is the per- 
sonal religious touch between teacher and student, between student 
and student. To further this end, attendance at chapel and church 
was required, extensive courses in Bible study, Biblical Literature, 
the history of religion and kindi-ed subjects were introduced and the 
Y. M. C. A. was organized and conducted on an extensive scale. 

But, though religious in the highest degree possible, his college 
must not have the slightest taint of sectarianism. Jew and Gentile, 
Catholic and Protestant, Hindu and Mohammedan, all must be wel- 
come, find their beliefs scrupulously respected and be made to feel as 
members of a family in a home of toleration. He only expected them 
to live up to the highest ideals of their faith and to be broad-minded 
and tolerant themselves. 

Not only must his college be religious and non-sectarian, he also 
felt it best that it should be non-denominational. All students were 
advised to attend the local churches of the denominations to which 
they adhered. 

A poor boy himself, he knew, by sad experience, the difficulties 
and perplexities, the labors and hardships, the discouragement, often 
the despair that such a student must meet and endure in seeking a 
college education. His college must do its utmost to encoui'age and 
stimulate self-reliance and self-help, and smooth the way for those 
laboring under such handicaps. This end he secured by keeping 
college charges at the lowest rate consistent with college require- 
ments, by discouraging lavish class and personal expenditure, by 
finding employment for those in need, and by taking a personal 
interest in the difficulties of every student. 

Finally, it was his great desire that his students should go forth 
into life, not following the promptings of personal ambition, but 
heeding the call to service, though fame should pass them by and 
wealth should never gild their pathway. 

As to the purely intellectual work of a college, he was conserva- 
tive. He insisted on the highest standards of attainment. He be- 
lieved that the best education consists in a broad foundation with 
intensive work along selected lines. While recognizing to the utmost 
modern needs and demands, he never wavered in his belief in the 



14 BATES COLLEGE BULLETIN 

value of the humanities, or his faith in the so-called classical college. 

Of President Chase the man it is difficult to speak. Words are 
inadequate. They can only suggest an outline, but all who knew 
him can fill in the details. 

He was gifted with a mind singularly keen, disci'iminating, pene- 
trating and logical. It was of the speculative type and, under other 
circumstances, he undoubtedly would have won his greatest eminence 
in the realm of philosophy. 

Educated in the days of the broad prescribed curriculum, and 
having taught many subjects, he was a man of breadth of culture, 
interested in all branches of knowledge and able to deal intelligently 
with the claims of all departments of instruction. 

He was deeply religious. To him Christianity was no system 
of Philosophy or Theology, nothing speculative or remote, but the 
essential part of his very being, permeating every thought and act 
and radiating from his personality as naturally as light from the 
sun. 

Hand in hand with his faith in God was his faith in man. He 
believed in man's innate nobility, in the possibilities of his develop- 
ment, in the steady progress of civilization. But more than this, he 
believed in men, individual men, in students. He believed in the 
manhood and womanhood, the good intentions, the high purposes and 
the ultimate success of his students. And when no one, not even he 
himself, could see the good and by appealing to it rouse the hopeless 
case, it was hard for him to give up hope. Indeed he never did 
give up hope but still believed in the redeeming work of the future, 
and his faith and prayers followed the delinquent out of college and 
sometimes brought him back a changed man. 

Such faith of necessity led to an unconquerable optimism and 
courage under all circumstances. No cloud was so black that he did 
not see the silver lining, no difficulty was so overwhelming, no finan- 
cial crisis so severe as to impair for a moment his sublime courage, 
or his invincible faith in the destiny of his college. 

This in turn led to a remarkable tenacity and perseverance in 
the pursuit of his aims and ends. 

He was characterized above most men by the spirit of helpful- 
ness and his position brought him in daily touch with many who 
needed his aid. Troubles concerning religious doubts, spiritual prob- 
lems, moral or social delinquencies, financial distress, need of work, 
finding of rooms and board, difficulties at home, need of recommenda- 
tions, all these and more were brought to him and received his careful 
attention, at an expense of time, energy and nervous force almost 
inconceivable. But this was work which was dear to his heart, which 
he felt to be one of the most essential of his duties. 



BATES COLLEGE BULLETIN 



15 



With all the splendid success of his career he remained always 
the same modest, retiring, unassuming man, seeking no honors, no 
publicity, no plaudits of the multitude, no commanding position among 
those whom the world delights to honor. These came but they came 
unsought. They conferred distinction on the man who craved no dis- 
tinction save the distinction that should come from a life of success- 
ful endeavor, spent in the service of man. 

Strong, wise leader, director, the Faculty will miss him. Kind, 
loving, sym.pathetic, helpful, the students will miss him. Builder 
in brick and stone, in minds and souls, the world will miss 
him. But his life remains. His influence has entered into the life of 
every graduate of Bates College, will be transmitted by them and will 
bless the world when Chase Hall shall have crumbled to ruins and 
his name shall have been forgotten. 




CHASE HALL 



16 BATES COLLEGE BULLETIN 

THE IMMORTALITY OF A GREAT LIFE 

For forty and six years I have gladly returned to these familiar 
scenes, but the event which brings me here today causes me to feel as 
never before that 

"The tender grace of a day that is dead 
Will never come back to me." 

The old halls, few in the days long gone, the many new ones, 
erected under the genius of a master builder, the trees ever reaching 
further their graceful arms, the walks, the very grass that softens 
the tread of our feet, I love, 

"But O for the touch of a vanished hand, 
And the sound of a voice that is still." 

Honored by your call, I respond with all my heart, but when the 
vast multitude whose hearts enshrine him, to whom no words of praise 
will ever seem adequate, when the many and great accomplishments 
of his life rise up before me, when I consider the majesty of his 
character, his unfaltering devotion at all times, this privilege becomes 
a stupendous task, from which I shrink. A task which should be 
easier, really becomes more difficult, because I loved him. 

Perhaps the great reason, why out from so many, together with 
some of his coadjutors I am permitted to speak here today is because 
for over forty and especially during the last twenty-five years, our 
hearts have been so closely knit together in the interests of Bates. 

My thoughts cluster about this one theme, "The immortality of 
a great life." 

This is no time or place for theology, nor is it necessary; all the 
conditions which I would make for personal immortality, were met 
by him; as everyone must for himself, he settled that question years 
ago. Not of the personal immortality of George Colby Chase, which 
I do not qviestion, do I speak, but of the immortality of his accom- 
plishments. There is a sense in which principles are undying, and 
deeds become immortal. Endeavors live in structures of stone and 
steel, in lives stimulating other lives, in influences that piove on and 
on as the sunlight once sent forth into the illimitable universe is never 
recalled. 

After almost 1900 years the comradeship of the Man of Galilee 
is as real as when He taught His disciples by the seashore or walked 
with them to Emmaus. Real penitence arises from its knees today to 
pass on with a sense of burden-lifting, heart-changing justification, as 
real as when face to face He said: "Thy sins be forgiven thee, go 
in peace." 



BATES COLLEGE BULLETIN 17 

Today, in Him, we behold the Father's love of His own image in 
every human creature, and thus again we are led out to the cross on 
calvary which gathers up in one ineffable expression of tenderness, 
the divine heart. 

Immortality is not a natural quality now, it comes in relations to 
God through Jesus Christ. "This is life eternal, that they might 
know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent." 
"He that believes in the Son hath everlasting life: and he that 
believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth 
on him." 

The deed.s of the immortal partake of the qualities of the doer, so 
that he who is dead yet speaketh, and he whose hands are clasped in 
stillness is yet moulding empires and riding in the vanguard of armies. 

O what a stupendous destiny for the little words we speak, the 
little deeds we do! What a marvel to have a place in God's great 
universe, aniid the swinging spheres, the laws and grace of Jehovah! 

Out of a grossly immoral age, one ran to Jesus inquiring the 
way to eternal life, so beautiful in character that Jesus loved him, 
only one thing was lacking but that was his downfall. Jesus told 
him to give all he had to the poor, himself to God, and not only should 
he live forever subjectively but forever a part of the family of 
disciples, his life should speak for the poor and needy. O blind and 
slow of heart, not knowing that we live only by dying, we keep only 
what we give away, we save our lives only by losing them, that the 
gateway to immortality is death. 

What makes a great life, of whose immortality we speak? 
Human greatness does not depend upon birth or riches, or natural 
genius. Kings have been horn to a throne who were mere weaklings. 
People of large wealth have left only a shame-marred record. Many 
wise and shrewd who could bring things to pass have never come to 
life's greatest possibilities, its comprehensive vision, its tenderest and 
noblest amenities. 

No life can be really great, until it bows at the altar of the 
Highest, becomes as a little child and lives in His embrace. It is 
there that one finds himself, and only when one finds himself does the 
never-ending- road begin. Ah! well does Seneca say, "Death falls 
heavily on him who, too well known to all men, dies unacquainted 
with himself." 

Of all seals of College, University, Fraternity, Order that I 
know, that of the American Baptist Foreign Missionary Society 
appeals to me most: an altar with embers smoking in readiness for 
the victim; a plow set to the furrough; standing between is the docile 
ox, and over all the words, "Ready for either" — sacrifice or service. 



18 BATES COLLEGE BULLETIN 

O pity for all human greatness which falls short of intimate 
touch with the Infinite. The beginning of wisdom is the fear of the 
Lord. 

The greatness of life and its work has moved master minds. 
Carlyle says, "All true work is sacred." Goethe says, "Every extra- 
ordinary man has a mission which he is called upon to accomplish." 
With one grand sweep of his baton the great Browning says, "No 
work begun shall ever pause for death." While the immortal 
Shakespeare makes the worn-out Cardinal Wolsey say, 

"Had I but served my God with half the zeal 
I served my king, He would not in my age 
Have left me naked to mine enemies." 

Man a living soul, the result of God's inbreathing, was not the 
last of divine impartation; still God gives of Himself that we may 
become like Him. As administrator He is beyond our comprehension, 
world builder, universe manager, law maker, fountain of unfathomable 
grace. 

Do those who insist so strongly upon law and all conclusions as 
results of what LeConte is pleased to term resident forces forget that 
God is the resident force, immanent, upon which all other forces 
depend? Shall we be too blind to recognize the marvelous doings of 
God in these days, or marvel at the results of the first battle of the 
Marne, or the turning of the tide at Chateau Thierry, twenty miles 
from Paris, or that only last year sturdy soldiers in Flanders caught 
glimpses of Joan de Arc as she led her armies in the fifteenth cen- 
tury? God is still the administrator and as such He gives Himself to 
His own. 

To a remarkable degree President Chase had the gift of admin- 
istration. From the lips of the sainted Cheney we have heard of his 
assistance in government and raising funds, before he became presi- 
dent. Note the changes of the last twenty-five years. In 1894 when 
Chase became president of Bates, the college had 585 graduates, 167 
students, nine officers and instructors. In 1919 she has 2385 grad- 
uates, 447 students (the number would be nearly 500 but for the war), 
39 officers and instructors, and yet these figures do not represent the 
actual gains. In 1894 the amount of laboratory work done by 
individual students in the sciences was scarcely a tenth of that done 
in 1919. In 1894 the College had no regular librarian. Prof. Stanton 
adding the care of the College books to his duties as the only teacher 
of both Greek and Latin. The library was open to students only a 
few hours a week. In 1919 there is a librarian, an assistant 
librarian and from ten to twelve student assistants, and the library is 
accessible to students about ten hours a day. In 1894 the College 



BATES COLLEGE BULLETIN 19 

Library contained 11,639 volumes, in 1919 it contains upwards of 
47,000 volumes. In 1894 there were only five buildings devoted to 
College purposes, in 1919 there are seventeen. In 1894 only a part of 
the lower floor of Hathorn Hall fully accommodated the library; in 
1919 Coram Library is already crowded, almost to its limit, and must 
be supplied soon with new stack rooms. In 1894 each building was 
heated by itself, often very inadequately; in 1919 there is a large 
heating plant to supply practically all the buildings. Among the new 
buildings are the Chapel, Rand Hall, Libbey Forum, Carnegie Hall, 
Coram Library, Roger Williams Hall, Chase Hall. Fully $5000 have 
been expended in repairing Parker Hall, an equal amount for Hathorn 
Hall, $3000 for Hedge Laboratory and $10,000 for John Bertram Hall. 
In 1894 there was no athletic field, now there is Garcelon Field, with 
grounds, grading and grandstand costing fully $10,000. In 1894 the 
funds according to the treasurer's repoi't amounted to $317,850.45; 
in 1919 the funds amount to $1,174,810.32. In 1894 the current 
income was $27,070.65; in 1919 it is $124,414.65. 

Since 1894 a system of intercollegiate debates has been developed, 
bringing to the College a national i-eputation. In 1894 Bates grad- 
uated a class of 22; in 1919 she graduates a class of 100. 

Such are some of the results of his administration, equalled by 
others in the internal conditions of the institution, where amid 
increasing attendance, marked changes in social life, in an age of 
shifting thought, the Corporation, Faculty and Students moved on 
together, in unbroken harmony and loyalty, winning the ever increas- 
ing respect of the world. 

Does it appeal to you that God is a marvelous educator, that life 
is a school of discipline, testing and development, in which "He that 
will do the will shall know the doctrine" and "All things work to- 
gether for good to them that love the Lord," a school which appeals 
as much to willingness and love as to intellect? George Colby Chase 
was a great educator, keen in comprehension, exact in definition, 
accurate in scholarship, expecting of others what he required of him- 
self; what appealed to him he made a lure to others. His ideas of 
education went far beyond the College curriculum to the development 
of character, the promotion of morals, high ideals in aspiration and 
self-restraint. 

In the midst of pressing administrative duties he stimulated 
thought by his pen, in public addresses, and in the touch of social 
fraternity, and all these relations were permeated by the truest type 
of scholarship. 

Perhaps nothing in religion appeals to us more than God mani- 
fest in the flesh. How humane it is when greatness humbles itself 
to help the needy! The humaneness of President Chase made him 



20 BATES COLLEGE BULLETIN 

great, gentle with harshness about him, tender under provocation, 
uncomplaining amid trials, truest when the course was most tortuous. 
Always a true man. 

What condition of any student whether of material need or moral 
lapse, failed to appeal to him? When in the midst of apparent failure 
did he forget human possibilities? Hundreds of men and women are 
battling out in the world to make it better, impelled by the lofty 
ideals which he inspired in them. They found in the night what the 
Cynic philosopher of Athens searched for with a lantern at noonday, 
a man. 

The crowning glory of the life of George Colby Chase was in 
the fact that he was a Christian. What is a Christian? I heard 
President Horr of Newton say recently, that a noted German teacher 
dined with him and it was suggested that this radical German and this 
conservative American attempt to formulate a satisfactory definition 
of Christianity together, and this was the result. "Christianity 
means reconciliation to God through personal relations with Jesus 
Christ." I think that satisfies all of us. If it can be made any 
simpler, Jesus made it so. Hear Him say, "Other sheep have I which 
are not of this fold." "And there shall be one fold and one shepherd," 
says the authorized version, but the revised version says, "There shall 
be one flock." A fold pens in the sheep, a flock is guided by a voice. 
Once in Palestine I halted by a stream of water to see a caravan 
refresh itself; flocks of sheep also rushed down the hillside and 
plunged into the stream. "Poor shepherds," I said, "how will you ever 
find your sheep again?" But they rested upon their crooks in com- 
posure, and then standing wide apart, each uttered his own peculiar 
call and every sheep scampered to its own shepherd; they knew their 
shepherd's voice, a stranger they would not follow. "My sheep know 
my voice," says the Great Shepherd; because they are Christian. We 
know George Colby Chase was a Christian. To know anything of his 
private life was to enrich our own. I knew it sufficiently to see that 
it was "hid with Christ." He felt his utter dependence upon 
God. When upon his election to the Presidency I told him how much 
I desired means with which to help him, he said, "You can pray for 
me." Times again he has suggested the same thing. In his last 
word to me of May 23d as chairman of the committee to find his 
successor, he wrote, "I feel that I have committed to me, in a way, 
the gl^eatest responsibility that I was ever called upon to meet. 
Never did I need more the help from the divine source." 

George Colby Chase was a Christian gentleman, an eminent 
scholar and educator, an unusual administrator, a devoted friend, 
making through all this, lasting friends for Bates. 



BATES COLLEGE BULLETIN 21 

In that impressive landmark of London, St. Paul's cathedral, you 
behold tablets and monuments to all kinds of human greatness; 
among these you come to a simple slab, set in the marble floor, in 
memory of the architect, Sir Christopher Wren, with the inscription, 
"If you would see his monument, look around you." So the monument 
to the memory of President Chase is already erected, in these halls, 
through this campus, out in the world where men and women toil 
unfalteringly because of his inspiration. To young people everywhere 
his life stands out an unmistakable example of the great possibilities 
in a very humble and obscure child. 

Many men in the world war had premonitions of coming death, 
so that while living they spoke as though dead. John McCrae thus 
expressed himself in these words: 

"In Flanders fields the poppies blow 
Between the crosses I'ow on row 
That mark our place; and in the sky 
The larks, still bravely singing, fly. 
Scarce heard amid the guns below. 
We are the dead. Short days ago 
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow. 
Loved and were loved, and now we lie 
In Flanders fields. 

Take up our quarrel with the foe: 
To you from falling hands we throw 
The torch; be yours to hold it high. 
If ye prove false to us who die 
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow 
In Flanders fields." 

Does not he whom we remember today say to us: 

"To you from falling hands we throw 
The torch: be yours to hold it high"? 

Can we see any better way to cherish his memory, honor the 
noble achievements of his life, than by being absolutely true to the 
scholastic ideals, the moral ideals, the Christian ideals which have 
made Bates what she is, and which can make her all he desired her 

to be? 

In closing, may I ask you who form that inner circle of which his 
personality formed so large a part, to go with me in words which 
have many times consoled me; may they likewise console you. 

thou eternal Life, each vision of our dead 
But makes us closer cling to Thee, 
And ask if when the hour-glass is turned for us 
Its sands will run eternally. 



22 BATES COLLEGE BULLETIN 

O thou supremest Life, supreme to those 
Submitting all. If not, the same supreme. 
What matters it to have our way a while, 
And then to wake, to find it but a dream. 

O thou divinest Life! though all the way 

Is blunder marked, and stains have marred the whole, 

Of that ideal we set; to be divine 

Is yet the strongest impulse of the soul. 

O Life with love and pity filled! forgive 
Our sore complaint, if sorrows deep have lain 
On us, and hid the joys of those most dear, 
To magnify our loss above their gain. 

loving Son of God, forgive if I 
Have erred in loving still the life in which 
Mine lived; which lived in mine, and passing left 
A rent, wide growing as a broken stitch. 

Forgive if I have sinned, not to forget 
Thy gift; to hold it fast; pain to have dulled 
With memories, to which I fain would bring 
A simple chaplet, which my heart has culled. 




LIBRARY OF CONGRESS ^ 

015 995 513 8 



Journal Printshop and Bindery 
Lewiston, Maine 



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LIBRftRY OF CONGRESS 




015 995 513 8 H^ 



